Our forecast low tonight is -25F.

It’s been a pretty cold start to the winter. Right now we have some low temperatures forecast that haven’t been seen in about 20 years (before I moved to the midwest.) I think the coldest I’ve experienced has been -22F and I’ve been out photographing eagles when the wind chill was about -40F, and my eyelashes froze. We are supposed to get down to -25F tonight and wind chills around -50F.

Not much has been going on in the yard, no unusual visitors or anything out of the ordinary. We do have at least one overwintering flicker, and have had a red-tailed hawk hunting in the yard recently. Normally I wouldn’t expect to see one here because of all the trees, but I’ve seen it a few times now. A couple of deer have been showing up to munch on what’s left of the garden (which fascinates the cats.)

Extra suet for below zero temperatures

Because of the extreme cold I’ve put out extra suet and peanuts for the birds. They need as much high energy food as possible. We have two suet logs and I’ve also got a suet cake up in the top gazebo, where I have safflower to discourage starlings. In the tube feeder we have thistle and sunflower chips which the finches really like. There is a second tube feeder with the same that I have hanging on the deck railing, out of view of the camera. The juncos like to hop around under it, catching anything the goldfinches drop.

I haven’t been spending a lot of time outside (other than filling the bird feeders). It’s good weather for firing up the wood stove and settling down to catch up on some TV watching!